Heros Never Sleep
by Sixty Five Roses
Summary: After a very stressful day at work, Sharon receives a letter that changes her mood.


Sharon pulled into her parking spot and turned off the engine. With a deep sigh, she leaned back in the driver seat and closed her eyes. She hated days like today, with complicated cases, missing witnesses, messy crime scenes and Assistance Chief Taylor breathing down her neck and pushing for answers so he can go and update the media. Of course, as in many other evenings, her work was not done. She still had paperwork to go over. She hoped Rusty had dinner ready, because she didn't have the energy to cook and they've been eating takeout way too often. She was worried about what all the pizzas and burgers will do to their health. With this thought in mind, she grabbed her purse from the front passenger seat and went out of the car, locking it and heading towards the elevators. God, she was tired and her feet were sore, and all she wanted was to take a long warm bath and then slide into bed and sleep for a year. With thoughts about ways to make her evening work as short as possible in her mind, she walked out of the elevator and towards her condo.

She unlocked the door and walked in, removing her shoes and placing her purse and keys on the hall table before she locked the door behind her and went to greet Rusty. He was in the kitchen, and for Sharon's relief, he was cooking dinner.

"I figured you'd be hungry," he said when Sharon thanked him.

"How was your day? Sharon wondered as she took dinner plates out of the cupboard and started setting the table.

"Nothing special, yours?" Rusty asked.

"My day is not over yet," Sharon sighed and went back to the kitchen to get cups and cutlery.

"That sucks," Rusty responded.

"It does," Sharon agreed with him. She could use some rest but with a murderer on the loose, she didn't have the luxury of going to bed early. Rusty brought the food to the table and they both took their seats in front of the dinner table. He's made Sharon's favorite food: gnocchi with pesto cream and he hoped it would cheer her up a little.

They ate in silence, Rusty noticing that Sharon was in no mood for talking. He knew sometimes Sharon needed some time to quietly process the day she had, especially after emotionally loaded workdays.

After dinner, Rusty took care of the dirty dishes while Sharon went to sit at her desk and go over paperwork she brought home. As she finished a phone call with Provenza and Tao, Rusty came over and placed a mug full of herbal tea in front of her.

"Thank you, sweetheart," she said and as she raised her head from the files she was reading, something caught her eye. It was a thin white envelope. "What's this?" she asked as she picked it up. She had gotten her fair share of letters in her life. Until two years ago, the letters were apologies, written in Jack's sloppy handwriting and full of lies, excuses and broken promises. And then there were Wade Weller's letters which brought nothing but utter panic to her heart every time she saw them.

"It arrived on the mail today. I thought you saw it," Rusty replied as if getting an anonymous letter was not a big deal for him. With shaky hands, Sharon opened the envelope and fished the letter out, trying to only touch the edges, in case she would need to use it as evidence later.

 _"Dear Captain Raydor,_

 _My name is Daisy and I'll be 10 years old in a week. I am your biggest fan._

 _I first saw you on TV after you saved my favorite actress Anna Fagan from the crazy man who wanted to kill her."_

Sharon remembered the case. Anna Fagan was a famous child star whose disappearance the squad was called to investigate several months earlier. The poor girl was nearly murdered by her captor when Sharon shot him, barely managing to get Anna out of the captor's knife by pushing her down to the ground. She could still hear the girl's desperate cry as she buried her head in Sharon's stomach and sobbed. And she could definitely still feel the faint pain that of the knife that missed Anna, but stabbed her instead. It wasn't a deep or life threatening wound, but it was definitely a very painful one.

 _"After I saw you on the news, I went online and read about you on Wikipedia. It says there that you are the woman with the highest rank in the LA police. And it also says that you are a feminist and you help promote women in the police."_

Sharon looked at Rusty and then at the letter again. The boy looked at her with utter confusion, still unsure what the letter was about or who wrote it.

"It's a letter from a little girl who saw me on TV," Sharon explained.

"What does she want?" Rusty wondered. Sharon read the letter to him from the beginning and then wondered aloud if she really had a Wikipedia page. Rusty quickly went on his iPhone to check and showed her the page as soon as he found it.

 _"In my class, there is a girl whose uncle is a police officer in New York and she told me about the dangerous things he does and how he saves people's lives. I told her about you and she is also a fan of yours now, because she thinks it's really cool that girls can be in the police and fight like the boys. I explained to her about feminism and how to be a strong girl and help other girls be strong too._

 _Our teacher gave us an assignment to write about what we want to be when we grow up and I decided to write my paper about you, because I want to be a hero who saves people just like you, when I'm older._

 _I just wanted to let you know that I love you and thank you for saving Anna Fagan, it means a lot to me and to lots of other kids who like her. You're my hero!_

 _Lots of love with hugs and kisses,_

 _Daisy Marks"_

Sharon couldn't help but smiling widely as she finished reading the letter. She looked at Rusty, trying to control the moisture that crept into her eyes. She has saved many people in her many years on the force, but this was the first time someone actually took the time to tell her how much they appreciated what she was doing.

"I can't believe I'm someone's hero," she said.

"I think you are many people's hero, Sharon. And obviously, this little girl finds you inspiring and I think she is right about that. There's a lot a person can learn from you," Rusty replied and placed a hand on her shoulder. "You should write back to her, Sharon," he suggested. Sharon nodded and scanned the letter for the girl's contact information. She was happy to see a note at the bottom of the last page that said _"I can't give you my address, but you can write to my father's office and he said he'll give me the letter."_ The office address was listed below. Smart girl, Sharon thought and carefully folded the letter and put it back in the envelope. "I hope you know that I think you're a hero too, Sharon." Rusty spoke softly.

"Thank you, honey," Sharon got up and wrapped her arms around her son. "It means a lot to me that you feel this way." As she pulled away, her son smiled at her and she sat back down in her chair.

"You look like you won't make it much longer before you fall asleep at your desk," Rusty teased her as he walked away.

"Oh, don't worry about it, heroes never sleep."

THE END

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 **As always, I'd love to know what you thought about this story, so feel free to leave a review or send me a PM.**


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